Today I'm sharing a card for the new challenge over at CASology where I have been invited by the lovely Melissa to be the guest designer, following my 'stag' card being chosen as a winner for challenge 378 - if you missed it, you can see that card here. 

Today's cue card is a festive one and perfect for some last-minute card making for the Christmas season:

 I decided to create a cute snowman using negative space for my card today - take a look:

 Here's the low-down on today's card:

Do You Wanna Build A Snowman - Apologies if you now have THAT song stuck in your head, but that was exactly what I decided to do today, on my card at least! Whilst I used my Snowman Builder Punch for the hat and arms, it wouldn't work for the body but this was easily remedied by using some (retired) circle punches (3/4", 1" and 1 1/4"). I added a felt scarf left over from one of last year's accessory kits for a little added texture, a simple sentiment from the 'Snowman Season' stamp set and my falling snow was courtesy of my much-loved retired Softly Falling embossing folder - it's still a favourite of mine:

This was the stamping on the inside of my card:

Design Defined - One of the things I love about the CASology challenge is that they encourage us to consider what makes our card 'clean and simple'. In addition to the basic guidelines, the design team offer some great tips in terms of their cards. Often when I play along I do the same, and if you check out my previous CASology-related blog posts, you will see lots of similar tips in relation to the cards that I created. For today's card, I defined my card design as 'Use negative space to create a focal point' which is a great way to add interest to a CAS design. 

An Unconventional Take - I actually made a second card using the same design, that was as a result of seeing this week's Inspired By inspiration photo:

I loved the holly against the bright pink for an unconventional take on Christmas colour, so decided I would use this idea to create a second version of the above card. My holly is small and I swapped out my scarf colour for more green, but this card is very much about the pink:

So what do you think? I actually still prefer the original one myself, however it was fun to change out the colour for an alternative effect. Here are both cards together for comparison:

Which one do you prefer? Do leave me a comment below - I would love to hear your thoughts.

Here is the visual summary of the key products used on today's project for you to pin for easy reference:

You can see all of my 'How To' summaries on my 'How To - Tips and Techniques' Pinterest board in case you've missed any. Thank you to the team at CASology for having me as their Guest Designer this week - do check out the team designs and I'm sure they would love you to play along with this challenge too.

Enjoy your day and I'll be back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

SNOWMAN BUILDER PUNCH (£17.00)

WHISPER WHITE A4 CARDSTOCK (£9.00)

SNOWMAN SEASON PHOTOPOLYMER STAMP SET (£17.00)

BASIC BLACK A4 CARDSTOCK (£8.25)

MELON MAMBO CARDSTOCK A4 (£8.25)

Today I'm going to share another of my Christmas projects, this time a fun packaging solution for a cute chocolate snowman that I bought at my local supermarket. From the outside, it looked like a fairly straightforward nicely packaged box, complete with bow:

It's when the box is opened that the 'reveal' happens - the snowman is sitting in the middle with the inside of the box decorated with four co-ordinating stamped 'snow day' snowmen:

I love the snowman stamp set in the 'Snow Day' set and as soon as I saw the chocolate snowman I knew the two belonged together. The box base uses one 12" x 12" sheet of Crumb Cake cardstock and is a great way to turn a simple chocolate gift into something extra-special.

Today is going to be an early night for me I think; after all the food and excesses of the last few days and a lovely long walk in the fresh air this afternoon, I am absolutely shattered! Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Gift Bow Bigz L Die	Season Of Style Designer Series Paper Stack	Snow Day Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Real Red A4 Card Stock
Crumb Cake 12 X 12 Smooth Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad	Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad
Elegant Eggplant Classic Stampin' Pad	Whisper White Craft Stampin' Pad

Well it's been another busy few days here in the James household with a trip to the movies on Friday, a fun trip iceskating yesterday and swimming, grocery shopping and a pre-Christmas festive family get-together this evening. The big day is almost upon us, but I finally managed to get some photographs taken today in between all my last minute Christmas preparations and today would like to share some of my quick but attractive festive packaging ideas for stocking-fillers and small gifts. Here's the first one - a simple pouch made using the envelope punch board:

I made lots of these in various colours to tie in with the Winter Frost DSP stack to package some little gifts for the lovely ladies who have attended my classes over the past year (I can't tell you what's inside though - it's not Christmas Day yet ;-)! )

The second of my projects is a little stocking filler I made for my daughter - a pair of hairclips decorated with Frosted Finishes Embellishments and packaged in a cute little triangular carton that I made using a sheet of the Winter Frost DSP stack:

I embossed the 'warm wishes' sentiment from the 'Snow Day' stamp set using silver embossing powder and it added a real feel of luxury to the finished packaging. For the clips, I simply adhered a Frosted Finishes Embellishments using Crystal Effects to a couple of standard hair clips.

My last packaging idea that I'm going to share today is one of the lovely little muslin bags, which I stamped with the 'Love and Joy' single stamp and decorated with another Frosted Finishes embellishment, a ribbon tie and a little Dazzling Diamonds for some extra sparkle:

These bags are a great size and perfect for a little sweet treat or a small gift such as nail polish or some candles, or maybe a miniature bottle of a favourite tipple, a pack of playing cards or a micro torch for a more masculine gift.

So some easy ideas to make those little gifts extra special.

I have a date with a very large ironing basket tomorrow evening (the exciting life I lead!), but all being well will be back with another post as I've a few more Christmas-themed things to share and am running out of time in which to do it.

Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Envelope Punch Board	Winter Frost Designer Series Paper Stack	Card Stock A4 Smoky Slate	Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana	Silver Glimmer Paper
1-1/4" Scallop Circle Punch	1 Inch Circle Punch	Merry Minis Punch Pack	Frosted Finishes Embellishments	Silver 1/8" Ribbon
Linen Thread	Versamark Pad	Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder	Heat Tool - Uk Plug	Mini Muslin Bags
Love & Joy Wood-Mount Stamp	Marina Mist 3/4" Chevron Ribbon	Marina Mist Classic Stampin' Pad	Silver Sparkle Dazzling Details

As promised, today's creative post features another of this month's class cards and also uses the Snow Day stamp set that I featured earlier in the week, but this time there's not a snowman in sight! Take a look at the card to see what I mean:

I cased the idea for this card from one made by Monica Gale (you can see her original card here), although mine looks quite different to hers I think with a much richer colour palette. The 'warm wishes' sentiment becomes a garland here, with the accessory pieces from this stamp set hanging from it; the only other thing that's needed is a fireplace!

I also did a reverse-coloured version of this card, with a seam binding ribbon bow:

Which one do you prefer? I'm favouring the clean lines of the first one, but like the second one too. Either way, it's always nice to be able to use one stamp set in a variety of different ways and I think this stamp set is more versatile than you might think at first glance. I have a few other ideas up my sleeve too, so check back for future posts on other ways you can use this fun set.

I have a jam-packed couple of days ahead, starting with the excitement tomorrow of a night out to hear Billy Joel in concert. I've always wanted to hear him sing live, so I'm very much looking forward to it. Before I go though, I will be back with the last of the Digital Scrapbooking Days 50% off offers and another creative post; until tomorrow, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

A quick creative post from me today - this is one of the cards we are making in this week's card classes, a one layer card using the Snow Day stamp set:

I love this cute snowman set and there are so many ways you can stamp him, but he's really great for a one layer card which is handy if you need to produce lots of cards in one go. Despite the fact that he's a snowman, I avoided using white on this card; my chosen colour combination was inspired by a recent challenge over at Create with Connie and Mary and I like the effect of the Soft Sky on Very Vanilla, with a little Smoky Slate and Raspberry Ripple for impact.

Check back next time for another card using this stamp set, that looks completely different. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used: